editorNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94John Powers is the pop culture and critic-at-large on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. He previously served for six years as the film critic.Powers covers film and politics for Vogue and Vogue.com. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Harper's BAZAAR, The Nation, Gourmet, The Washington Post, The New York Times and L.A. Weekly, where he spent twelve years as a critic and columnist.A former professor at Georgetown University, Powers is the author of Sore Winners, a study of American culture during President George W. Bush's administration. His latest book, WKW: The Cinema of Wong Kar Wai (co-written with Wong Kar Wai), is an April 2016 release by Rizzoli.He lives in Pasadena, California, with his wife, Sandi Tan.NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94John PowersThu, 08 Dec 2016 03:54:26 +0000John Powershttp://wlrn.org
John PowersIf any image haunts TV news, and perhaps our conscience, it's the seemingly ceaseless river of migrants seeking refuge from war, dictatorship and poverty. These desperate souls inspire pity, fear and election-year arguments about whether to offer them welcome or keep them out.Not surprisingly, many artists feel compelled to confront this refugee crisis. But the big question is: How do you engage a humanitarian tragedy without haranguing the audience or laying on a guilt trip? You get different but complementary answers in two prize-winning new works from Europe. One is an observational documentary, the other a quasi-mythic novel.Gianfranco Rosi's ravishingly shot Fire at Sea takes place on the tiny, unglamorous Sicilian island of Lampedusa, 70 miles from the coast of Africa. Year after year, tens of thousands of migrants turn up on disastrously overcrowded boats. So many come that the UN has an entire hazmat-suited system for handling them — they're rescued at sea, cleaned up,2 New Works Confront The Refugee Crisis With Empathy And Humanityhttp://wlrn.org/post/2-new-works-confront-refugee-crisis-empathy-and-humanity
78453 as http://wlrn.orgWed, 30 Nov 2016 20:16:00 +00002 New Works Confront The Refugee Crisis With Empathy And HumanityJohn PowersCopyright 2016 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air.Feminist Western 'Certain Women' Takes On Friendship And Stoicismhttp://wlrn.org/post/feminist-western-certain-women-takes-friendship-and-stoicism
77127 as http://wlrn.orgTue, 08 Nov 2016 21:07:00 +0000Feminist Western 'Certain Women' Takes On Friendship And StoicismJohn PowersCopyright 2016 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air.TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. Our critic-at-large, John Powers, has a review of "13th," Ava DuVernay's new documentary that opened the New York Film Festival and is currently playing in selected theaters and on Netflix. In "13th," DuVernay, who's best known for directing "Selma," explores how the United States became the country with the world's largest prison population and why a hugely disproportional number of those prisoners are black. JOHN POWERS, BYLINE: Like most Americans of every skin color, I wish I no longer had to think about race. It's uncomfortable. It's depressing. It's infuriating. But it's also an inescapable fact of our lives. That fact lies at the heart of "13th," a new documentary by Ava DuVernay, best known for directing "Selma," that's now showing in selected theaters and on Netflix. Taking its title from the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which formally abolished slavery but left a loophole about'13th' Maps The Road From Slavery To Mass Incarcerationhttp://wlrn.org/post/documentary-exposes-loophole-led-mass-incarceration
76028 as http://wlrn.orgFri, 21 Oct 2016 17:49:00 +0000'13th' Maps The Road From Slavery To Mass IncarcerationJohn PowersI have a friend in London who's at war with her car's GPS. Although she nearly always puts it on, she's driven mad by its voice, which is female, and refuses to follow its directions. She spends whole trips arguing with, barking at, and sometimes cursing this imaginary woman. She'd never be this rude to an actual human being. But, of course, a GPS doesn't have feelings.But what if it did? That's one of the many timely questions raised by Westworld, the darkly exciting new series that's HBO's biggest gamble since Game of Thrones.Developed by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, it's an ambitious reboot — and rethink — of the clever but clunky 1973 movie by Michael Crichton, who would go on to write the more popular but less provocative Jurassic Park.The show takes its title from the name of a futuristic theme park where visitors come to live out their Wild West fantasies. Inhabited by astonishingly life-like androids known as "hosts," Westworld lets guests ride the high-country, gun down anOld West Gunslinging Meets Futuristic Androids In HBO's 'Westworld'http://wlrn.org/post/old-west-gunslinging-meets-futuristic-androids-hbos-westworld
74982 as http://wlrn.orgThu, 29 Sep 2016 19:04:00 +0000Old West Gunslinging Meets Futuristic Androids In HBO's 'Westworld'John PowersTelevision used to be careful when it told fictional stories about the presidency. It was bound by a sense of decorum. But things changed forever with the famous commercial for the movie Independence Day that wowed those watching the 1996 Super Bowl by blowing the White House sky high. Ever since, presidents have been fair game. You can portray them as thugs, schemers or murderers — or knock them off to boost ratings.The latest show to occupy the White House is Designated Survivor, a new ABC series created by David Guggenheim, best-known for writing thrillers like Safe House. To judge from its pilot, the show hopes to capitalize on current anxieties about everything from our divided government to the threat of cataclysmic terrorism.Kiefer Sutherland stars as Tom Kirkman, a lesser Cabinet member who, on the night of the State of the Union address, has been chosen as, well, the designated survivor. That is, he's the one sequestered away so the U.S. government still has a top official toKiefer Sutherland Takes Over The Oval Office As The 'Designated Survivor' http://wlrn.org/post/kiefer-sutherland-takes-over-oval-office-designated-survivor
74660 as http://wlrn.orgThu, 22 Sep 2016 02:36:00 +0000Kiefer Sutherland Takes Over The Oval Office As The 'Designated Survivor' John PowersCopyright 2016 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air.DAVE DAVIES, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. The new film comedy "War Dogs" takes a new angle on America's wars in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Directed by Todd Phillips, who's best known for "The Hangover," it stars Jonah Hill and Miles Teller as two unlikely arms dealers. Our critic at large John Powers says the movie's at its best when the characters are at their worst. JOHN POWERS, BYLINE: War may be hell, but it can be heaven for business. That's why for as long as there have been wars, there have always been people eager to make money from them. What makes America special is that the profits to be made are astronomical. This reality forms the backdrop of Todd Phillips' jauntily enjoyable new comedy "War Dogs." Just the latest movie to take it for granted, along with the majority of Americans, that our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been a real mess. Freely adapted from a 2011 Rolling Stone article by Guy Lawson, it tells the'War Dogs' Puts A Satirical Spin On The Business Of Warhttp://wlrn.org/post/war-dogs-puts-satirical-spin-business-war
73101 as http://wlrn.orgFri, 19 Aug 2016 17:26:00 +0000'War Dogs' Puts A Satirical Spin On The Business Of WarJohn PowersNovelists have always put their heroines through awful ordeals. But over time, these tribulations change. Where the 19th Century was filled with fictional women trapped in punishing marriages — think of Middlemarch or The Portrait of a Lady — today's heroines face trials that are bigger, more political, and more physically demanding. They fight in hunger games.This fight takes a different form in The Natural Way of Things, a ferocious new novel by the Australian Charlotte Wood whose writing recalls the early Elena Ferrante — it's tough, direct, and makes no attempt to be ingratiating.Set in a dystopian backwater, her short, gripping book begins as an allegory of thuggish misogyny then evolves into a far stranger and more challenging feminist parable.The first chapters plunge us into a dusty, desolate prison camp deep in the outback. The prisoners, we learn, are 10 young women whose crime, so to speak, is to have been involved in sex scandals, from sleeping with a priest, to engaging inDystopian Novel Challenges Misogyny As 'The Natural Way Of Things'http://wlrn.org/post/dystopian-novel-challenges-misogyny-natural-way-things
71825 as http://wlrn.orgTue, 26 Jul 2016 18:24:00 +0000Dystopian Novel Challenges Misogyny As 'The Natural Way Of Things'John PowersWhen most of us think about computer hacking, we picture Julian Assange leaking government secrets or a shadowy, bad-shave crook in some former Soviet republic hoovering up credit card info from a chain store. But while folks like these do stir up all manner of trouble, a much deeper danger lies elsewhere.That danger is the theme of Zero Days, a chilling new film by Alex Gibney, who sometimes seems to turn out documentaries as quickly as tweets. This latest one may be his finest and most important, for it doesn't merely tell an exciting story about using a computer virus to wage black ops against Iran. Filled with juicy historical tidbits, it keeps expanding its frame of reference to reveal one of the looming, but invisible threats of the digital age.Gibney begins in 2010 in Belarus, where a computer security guy comes across a highly infectious new kind of malware — dubbed Stuxnet — that is dazzling in its complexity. Soon, computer whizzes, journalists and even our Department of'Zero Days' Documentary Exposes A Looming Threat Of The Digital Age http://wlrn.org/post/zero-days-documentary-exposes-looming-threat-digital-age
71372 as http://wlrn.orgMon, 18 Jul 2016 17:54:00 +0000'Zero Days' Documentary Exposes A Looming Threat Of The Digital Age John PowersTo judge from our media coverage, you'd think that Mexico isn't so much a country as a problem. But if you look beyond the endless talk of drug wars and The Wall, you discover that Mexico has a booming culture.In recent years, there's been an explosion of literary talent — from the sly provocateur Mario Bellatin to the brainy and funny Valeria Luiselli. This writing makes most American literary fiction feel pale and cannily packaged.Much of this work is now appearing in English thanks to today's heroic small presses. In fact, I've just read new novels by two rising Mexican writers whose work you really ought to know. While their books have some qualities in common — both are brief, brilliantly written, and kissed by a sense of the absurd — their different approaches hint at the range of today's Mexican fiction.Among Strange Victims, from Coffee House Press, is the first book to appear in English by 32-year-old Daniel Saldaña París. Translated with great verve by Christina MacSweeney,2 Brilliantly Written Novels From Mexico Head Up A Wave Of Literary Talenthttp://wlrn.org/post/2-brilliantly-written-novels-mexico-head-wave-literary-talent
70984 as http://wlrn.orgMon, 11 Jul 2016 18:10:00 +00002 Brilliantly Written Novels From Mexico Head Up A Wave Of Literary TalentJohn PowersCopyright 2016 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air.'The Witness' Exposes The Myths, Misconceptions Of Kitty Genovese's Murderhttp://wlrn.org/post/witness-exposes-myths-misconceptions-kitty-genoveses-murder
69725 as http://wlrn.orgThu, 16 Jun 2016 17:46:00 +0000'The Witness' Exposes The Myths, Misconceptions Of Kitty Genovese's MurderJohn PowersAn Emotional Storm Breaks In Paradise In 'A Bigger Splash'http://wlrn.org/post/emotional-storm-breaks-paradise-bigger-splash
68232 as http://wlrn.orgMon, 16 May 2016 18:04:00 +0000An Emotional Storm Breaks In Paradise In 'A Bigger Splash'John PowersCopyright 2016 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air.A Thrilling TV Adaptation Of John Le Carré's 'Night Manager' http://wlrn.org/post/thrilling-tv-adaptation-john-le-carr-s-night-manager
66957 as http://wlrn.orgTue, 19 Apr 2016 17:16:00 +0000A Thrilling TV Adaptation Of John Le Carré's 'Night Manager' John PowersBrazil has been in the news a lot these days, but not for happy reasons. As it prepares to host the Olympics this August, the economy is tanking, the president is heading toward impeachment and the country has become ground zero for the Zika virus. All this is enough to make one recall Charles de Gaulle's famously dismissive remark, "Brazil is not a serious country."He was, of course, wrong. Brazil is one of the world's greatest and most exciting cultures, one in which the drama of modernity plays out every single day. This drama is masterfully caught by Neon Bull, a remarkable feature by Gabriel Mascaro that's set amid Brazil's version of rodeo, the vaquejada. Mascaro plops us into a back-country reality most of us have never seen and reveals it to be stranger and dreamier than we might think.Shot in Northeast Brazil, Neon Bull is a road movie about a vanishing way of life. It follows the itinerant crew looking after the bulls that the cowboys chase on horseback during the show. ThereIn 'Neon Bull,' A Strange, Dreamy Road Movie Reveals A Vanishing Way Of Lifehttp://wlrn.org/post/neon-bull-strange-dreamy-road-movie-reveals-vanishing-way-life
66360 as http://wlrn.orgWed, 06 Apr 2016 18:23:00 +0000In 'Neon Bull,' A Strange, Dreamy Road Movie Reveals A Vanishing Way Of LifeJohn PowersCopyright 2016 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air.'My Golden Days,' An Heir To French New Wave http://wlrn.org/post/my-golden-days-heir-french-new-wave
65923 as http://wlrn.orgMon, 28 Mar 2016 18:26:00 +0000'My Golden Days,' An Heir To French New Wave John PowersCopyright 2016 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air.Transcript TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. Our critic-at-large John Powers has a review of a new graphic novel that he describes as an astonishing work of imagination. It's by the Singaporean writer and illustrator Sonny Liew, who was born in Malaysia, studied philosophy at Cambridge University and is best known in the U.S. for his DC Comics series Doctor Fate about an Egyptian-American superhero. His new graphic novel, his biggest and most ambitious work, spans decades. Here's John's review of "The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye."JOHN POWERS, BYLINE: It wasn't so long ago that comics were considered artistically marginal, adolescent fantasy. All that changed with the 1986 release of "Maus." Art Spiegelman's graphic novel - as they're now called - tackled the Holocaust and its effect on his family. "Maus" won a Pulitzer Prize and unleashed the ongoing wave of masterful books that includes Alan Moore's "Watchmen," Chris Ware's 'Charlie Chan Hock Chye' Offers A Heartfelt Take On Aging, Art And Historyhttp://wlrn.org/post/charlie-chan-hock-chye-offers-heartfelt-take-aging-art-and-history
64855 as http://wlrn.orgMon, 07 Mar 2016 18:29:00 +0000'Charlie Chan Hock Chye' Offers A Heartfelt Take On Aging, Art And HistoryJohn PowersBack in the early 1960s, Philip Roth wrote a famous essay declaring that modern American life had gotten so delirious that it dwarfed fiction's ability to match it. Never did his words seem truer than in 1994, when O.J. Simpson — football god, mediocre movie actor and amiable pitchman for Hertz — was charged with butchering his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.From the discovery of the bodies in well-heeled Brentwood to the rapid verdict of "not guilty" — which flabbergasted white America — the 15-month saga was an explosion of tabloid surrealism in which horror played hopscotch with hilarity.The Trial of the Century, as it was known, comes to enthralling life in The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, an irresistible 10-part FX series that marks a new high for its creator, Ryan Murphy. Adapted by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski from Jeffrey Toobin's nonfiction book, The Run of His Life, this fictionalized show is bursting with sharp scenes,'The People V. O.J. Simpson' Bursts With Sharp Scenes, Powerful Performanceshttp://wlrn.org/post/people-v-oj-simpson-bursts-sharp-scenes-powerful-performances
63125 as http://wlrn.orgMon, 01 Feb 2016 18:46:00 +0000'The People V. O.J. Simpson' Bursts With Sharp Scenes, Powerful PerformancesJohn PowersCopyright 2016 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air.Transcript DAVE DAVIES, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. From James Bond to George Smiley, England's known for its attraction spy stories. The latest is "London Spy," a new series beginning tonight on BBC America. It stars Ben Whishaw as a young clubber who suddenly finds himself plunged into the middle high-level espionage. Our critic-at-large John Powers has seen all five episodes. He says this is a spy thriller unlike any he's ever seen.JOHN POWERS, BYLINE: If there's any sensation that's distinctively modern, it's surely paranoia - the feeling that, somewhere, unseen forces are conspiring against us to steal our identities, take away our civil liberties, kill us in shopping malls. Small wonder that so many books and movies are bursting with stories about ordinary people. Like Cary Grant in "North By Northwest," who stumbled into a shadowy world of murderous conspiracy and struggled to get out alive. That's precisely what happens in Messy And Absurd, 'London Spy' Mixes Espionage With Genuine Emotion http://wlrn.org/post/messy-and-absurd-london-spy-mixes-espionage-genuine-emotion
62608 as http://wlrn.orgThu, 21 Jan 2016 21:11:00 +0000Messy And Absurd, 'London Spy' Mixes Espionage With Genuine Emotion John Powers"Money doesn't talk," said Bob Dylan. "It swears." This is almost literally true in the blizzard of books, movies and TV shows about our financial one-percenters. If our wolves of Wall Street love anything more than obscene wealth, it's obscene language. These guys — and they are mainly guys — don't trust anyone who's shy about dropping F-bombs.Who's effing who — and how — is one of the governing metaphors of Billions, a new Showtime series whose opening shot features one of its lead characters trussed up and awaiting a dominatrix. Though my heart sank when I saw this, such an image is truth in advertising. This is a show about power relationships, one that's positively shameless in its desire to grab you.Billions is built around the collision of two megalomaniacal power-brokers, both played by actors who specialize in characters you can't trust. That Pavarotti of prickliness Paul Giamatti is Chuck Rhoades, a well-born U.S. Attorney with just enough conscience that he can't completelyShowtime's Financial Drama 'Billions' Doubles Down On Melodrama And Machismohttp://wlrn.org/post/showtimes-financial-drama-billions-doubles-down-melodrama-and-machismo
62325 as http://wlrn.orgFri, 15 Jan 2016 19:07:00 +0000Showtime's Financial Drama 'Billions' Doubles Down On Melodrama And MachismoJohn PowersIt's that time of the year when critics proudly unveil their "10 Best" lists. But every December, I find myself compiling a private list that's different and guiltier. I call it my Ghost List, and it's composed of all the terrific things I've read, watched or heard that, for reasons ranging from bad timing to laziness — yes, critics can be lazy — I didn't get around to praising on Fresh Air. This year, I've decided to rectify that by conjuring up six ghosts I wish I'd shared with you earlier. As it happens, they all reflect, to a greater or lesser degree, a small obsession of mine — America's impact on other cultures.The Sympathizerby Viet Thanh NguyenAmerica's impact is explicit in The Sympathizer, the dazzling first novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen, a USC professor who was born in Vietnam but grew up a refugee in the States. The book's narrator-hero is a double agent — a Viet Cong spy who works for a South Vietnamese general. It's a role that takes him from the fall of Saigon, to exile inJohn Powers' List Of Books, CDs And DVDs He Wishes He Had Reviewed In 2015http://wlrn.org/post/john-powers-list-books-cds-and-dvds-he-wishes-he-had-reviewed-2015
60910 as http://wlrn.orgMon, 14 Dec 2015 20:48:00 +0000John Powers' List Of Books, CDs And DVDs He Wishes He Had Reviewed In 2015John PowersThe most intractable conflict in modern life is the battle between those who want society to be somehow pure — religiously, say, or racially — and those who see society as an ever-changing mix and actually prefer it that way. You could hardly find a more horrific example of this split than the Islamic State's terror attack on the proudly diverse city of Paris.We find a less bloody version of this conflict in Mustang, the debut feature of the gifted young female director Deniz Gamze Ergüven. And talk about your mixes: Ergüven was born in Turkey, but now lives in France. She co-wrote the script with a French director, but tells a story about Turkey from a Western enough angle that France has made a film in Turkish its Oscar entry. I should probably mention that it's really, really stirring.Mustang centers on five orphaned teen sisters who live with their grandmother in an isolated town on the Black Sea. Their blood fizzes with the champagne of dawning sexuality, and as the action begins,5 Sisters Struggle With The Shackles Of A Conservative Culture In 'Mustang'http://wlrn.org/post/5-sisters-struggle-shackles-conservative-culture-mustang
60195 as http://wlrn.orgMon, 30 Nov 2015 18:53:00 +00005 Sisters Struggle With The Shackles Of A Conservative Culture In 'Mustang'